My Experience Installing Vista

[Guest]

Very quickly, had a very unfavorable experience attempting to install Vista.
1. Pc was Vista compatible, (except insufficient video for new interface_
2. Failures
a. Setup failed after detecting Norton Ghost, and Mcafee Security
(no capability to dynamically remove/disable those applications)
b. Setup failed for lack of disk capacity(twice), after finding the
requisite amount of disk (about 6.8 gig), 'error to write to disk on
installation', and received message that '40gig of disk' was required). Freed
up another 2gig of disk.
c. Setup was extremely slow (many hours, win xp about 1/2 hour)
d. Setup next was unable to access internet , stated incompatible Ethernet
controller, thinkpad x31 Intel/Pro 100 VE internet adapter
e. No restart capability with installer. Restart (although not required)
asks for product id early in the process, so it has to be input over and over
again.

I gave up.

Need to at a minimum have a set of latest drives for the most likely found
hardware devices.

Now very uncertain as the the risk/reward of an upgrade to this product.

Experience very much worse than the upgrade to windows xp.

 

[Guest]

I agree. I found the experience very frustrating. I would expect these sort
of issues with a pure BETA release, but when we are this close to production,
I need to see a much much cleaner install. Microsoft should brace for lots
of public backlash if they try to release something that runs like the
current release candidates do.

 

[David Wilkinson]

Very quickly, had a very unfavorable experience attempting to install Vista.
1. Pc was Vista compatible, (except insufficient video for new interface_
2. Failures
a. Setup failed after detecting Norton Ghost, and Mcafee Security
(no capability to dynamically remove/disable those applications)
b. Setup failed for lack of disk capacity(twice), after finding the
requisite amount of disk (about 6.8 gig), 'error to write to disk on
installation', and received message that '40gig of disk' was required). Freed
up another 2gig of disk.
c. Setup was extremely slow (many hours, win xp about 1/2 hour)
d. Setup next was unable to access internet , stated incompatible Ethernet
controller, thinkpad x31 Intel/Pro 100 VE internet adapter
e. No restart capability with installer. Restart (although not required)
asks for product id early in the process, so it has to be input over and over
again.

I gave up.

Need to at a minimum have a set of latest drives for the most likely found
hardware devices.

Now very uncertain as the the risk/reward of an upgrade to this product.

Experience very much worse than the upgrade to windows xp.

My experience:

Clean install on new computer (Asus A8N-E motherboard, NVidia NForce4
chipset, Athlon64 X2 4200 CPU, ATI Radeon X1300 256MB video, integrated
sound/ethernet). Vista installed smoothly (in about 25 minutes) and
everything worked immediately (sound, video, internet). Both x86 and
x64. Changed the workgroup name and I had my LAN. Smoothest Windows
install ever.

Installing XP on the same system took longer, and required installation
of motherboard and video drivers.

Clean install is the only way to go with any OS, IMHO. Back up your data
first, and reinstall the applications you need. You must have enough
disk space, of course. And maybe your ethernet controller is a real
problem, I don't know.

Will I upgrade XP to Vista? Probably not, but not because of the reasons
you give.

David Wilkinson

 

[Guest]

I agree with David.

I myself put together a new PC to test Windows Vista. Intel motherboard
D975XBX, Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU, Corsair 2 GB memory, ATI Radion
X1950PRO, Seagates 400 GB hard drive, 2 DVD burners from HP & Pioneer, TV
Tuner, etc.

I downloaded Windows Vista RC1 from my other PC and intalled it on the new
PC. The installation was faster than installing Windows XP. It did not even
reformat the hard drive. Internet work instantly, my home network I just have
to change the workgroup name.

My only problem was installing the drivers & softwares for the motherboard &
video card. I get a messaged that "the operating system dennied access to the
specific files." Need help on this!

My suggestion for those who want to try Windows Vista using their existing
PC is to invest on a new hard drive, so if you want to go back to your old
system, you just replace back the old hard drive.

Ed Vita